Over the past few years, in tiny fits and starts, I've been working on a portfolio of still life compositions (still 90% a work in progress). I must have bought these #2 pencils in 2011 or 2012, thinking that they might make an interesting visual arrangement. It took me the better part of two years to get around to photographing them, and even though I'm not sure how interesting the end result is, it was inexplicably satisfying to create a backdrop with exactly the "right" tone of blue, and then to measure and space everything out in order to make a picture of... some pencils lined up just so.

The more I shoot, and the more I review the images I've shot, the more I am coming to understand that a lot of my interest in photography stems from a strong desire to organizing things visually. Functional OCD is my special sauce.